Yorkieabroad

An, the school supplies pack! Yeah, we get that one......you can either pick up the grade specific list and go hunt the requirements down yourself, paying around $ 50-60 per kid per year (depending on grade), or you can buy them through whoever the school nominates as the supplier (Epipacks for us this year), which maybe costs a couple of dollars more, but saves a load of hassle and gets delivered directly to school.

Then at Meet the Teacher night, there is always an additional "wish list" from the teacher of "classroom" supplies....

MarylandNed

I have friends and relatives who are teachers and/or parents in both systems. The level of parental involvement and volunteering is definitely greater in the US - or at least in my part of Maryland. My kids have attended 4 different schools at this point from elementary (grades 1-5), middle (grades 6-8), to high school (grades 9-12) and all have active PTA's (parent-teacher associations) to encourage parental involvement, volunteering and fund raising. I am also familiar with many of the other schools in our county and the situation there is exactly the same.

I think the level of involvement is greater at elementary school and tends to diminish somewhat by high school. Elementary school participation is heavy in terms of school trips, school plays/concerts, school parties, running the school store, and even parents volunteering in the classroom as teachers' aides. High school involvement seems to be mostly limited to car pooling for school trips (e.g. sporting events) and running concession stands or the scoreboard at high school sports games.

However, it's nearly always the same, small core group that get actively involved while the vast majority don't get involved much if at all. My wife has been actively involved for the past 15 years...and she has 6 more to go!

Rete

If I read your post correctly, you are referring to the experiences abroad of parents with children in American Schools while abroad.

They can't be equated with public schools on US soil. Peas and carrots

Yes, there are some US schools that ask for parental participation for elementary school children, i.e. bake sales, field trip chaperones, play yard monitors, etc. But it is on a voluntary and not at all mandatory. Now if you were speaking of a church sponsored school, then it is oft times mandatory. It was as far back as the 1970's when my girls went to Catholic School. But not mandatory when they transferred to a public school. Both have their fund raising activities. In Catholic School you had to sell a minimum amount while in public school it was whatever you can sell, that is fine.

penguinsix

While I am living overseas and this did come up in the context of international schools, which as you note are quite different, my question was posed of those in 'regular' schools in both the US and the UK. Just wanted to get a more 'general' view on the matter.

Thanks to those who have answered.

Clare8781

My son has attended school both in the UK and here in California. I certainly don't think there is an expectation that parents volunteer, but as a parent I certainly feel that they need my help more than his school in the UK did.

Examples: no teaching assistants (kindergarten ratio 1:30 unless parents help in class); purchase school supplies (mandatory, around $50 a year, I'm talking paper, scissors, glue, pencils here); PTA funds science, phys ed & subjects outside core curriculum (PTA receives money from parents); only one paid yard duty for whole school (700 kids), parents fill the gap. I'm sure there are others I've forgotten.

In the UK, there was at least one teaching assistant for every class through infant school (4-7 years old, ratio 2 or 3:30), all supplies were provided by the school, the curriculum covered a wider range of subjects, and there were probably 5 playground monitors for 140 kids. There were PTA fundraising events but proceeds covered school trips (one per term).

I think funding is the big problem here, I feel bad for the teachers who try so hard to do an amazing job despite terrible resources

Sally Redux

Yes, me too!

kins

Amazing the differences across one country. Our teacher:student ratio in kindergarten is 1:11 and in 1st grade it's 1:18. The PTA doesn't need to fund any subjects or school trips. They spend most of their time arranging things like lunches for the teachers to say thank you.

Clare8781

I have friends from the east coast who are routinely horrified by the public schools in California. Amazing when you consider the wealth around here, particularly in Silicon Valley.

This article explains why Maine has a better ratio - they rightly spend $14591 per pupil per year, California spends $8667...

http://www.nationaljournal.com/thene...atter-20121016

penguinsix

Here's a dumb question:

Do you have to buy your kid school supplies (pencils, scissors, notebooks, protractors, etc) in the UK? It's common in the US, with the Walmarts and stores having 'lists' of things each kid needs for school that year, but wasn't sure if that was done in the UK as well.

fwiw it's not done at my son's international school, but for the fees we pay they better not skimp on that sort of stuff.

scrubbedexpat091

California's educational system has been messed up for eons. It was pure crap in the 80's and 90's when I went through it. Not even the teachers I encountered in 12 years of education were good, and back then the schools supplied most supplies still.

I still remember my History class in 11th grade, each day was a new movie loosely based on history. My Spanish teacher wasn't fluent in Spanish, so we mostly just repeated phrases from the book.

I didn't do well in math, so they pulled me out of math for high school.

The only teacher I can recall who actively taught, was my biology teacher.

Sally Redux

I seem to remember buying pencil cases, fountain pens and cartridges. I think most other things were provided, although I can't remember exactly.

N1cky

My daughter started middle school last Monday, in Silicon Valley, we have been really impressed with the first week. They spent the first day visiting all their classrooms and meeting their teachers, then spent the rest of the week in home teams, mixed 6th to 8th grades, doing team building type exercises. It's been a great way to interact with older kids, and get to know the school. On Friday she collected her home textbooks, so she doesn't have to carry them back and forwards to school, kids who split their home between parents were given an extra copy. There are a loads of after school activities to choose from, track and field, robotics, language clubs... This week seems to have been a whole lot of money that didn't need to be spent, but has been to make kids feel welcome and at home in their first week of school.

I know we are lucky living where we are, many private companies help fund our school district, but I've still been beyond impressed with the first week, hopefully it will continue.

rebs

My experience in the UK (my son is now 15) is that as they get older, you need to buy more stuff...

When the little ones start school, you don't need to get anything - the school provides everything.

When they get a bit older, you have to start buying pens, pencils, coloured pencils, highlighter pen, compass, protractor, calculator, pencil case, ruler, eraser, pencil sharpener, lab coat.

At the time we were in the US my son was about 10 and the supplies we had to get for the US were broadly similar to what we would have had to buy in the UK, with a few exceptions - in the UK, I have never provided exercise books or paper, never had to provide wipes or tissues and never had to provide red pens for the teacher.

Other than those, the supplies were pretty similar... although in the US it was a much more formal affair with a specific list and probably in larger quantities than I would have bothered with at the start of the year.

Thebookbeaver

I do not think there is any such expectation that parents do any of the things you have listed. May be it differs from school to school but most of the US schools do not have to do things for parents.

Yorkieabroad

This one is quite annoying as it seems to generate a lot of potential waste...ours always seem to massively overorder on paper, glue sticks and pencils. The excess gets sent home at the end of the year.I have boxes and boxes of leftover paper and pencils that normally get donated to one of the local charities or women's shelters. One of our cub dens did a "service project" at one of the local schools ..... They were taking the leftover glue out of the glue stick holders, which were then recycled, and the glue was....don't know.....maybe ...turned back into horses? they recycled over 6000 glue sticks